wilbur smith



(No Model.)

J. W. SMITH.

SHIRT.

No. 321.544 Patented July 7, 1885.

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: NITED Srarns arnn'r Unmet.

J. WILBUR SMITH, OF NEXVARK, NEW JERSEY.

SHIRT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 321.54%, dated July 7, 1885.

Application filed February 9, 1885.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J. WILBUR SMITH, a citizen of the United States, residing in N ewark, Essex county, New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Shirts, fully described and represented in the following specification and the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the same. i

This invention relates to that class of reenforce pieces which is formed with a longitudinal part attached to the vertical edge of the shirt-bosom and having a lateral piece attached to the armhole-seam; and the invention consists in forming an opening in the reenforce piece at or near the corner, which is formed by the junction of the shoulder-seam and armhole. This construction secures an opening where such a re-enforce has usually formed a rigid connection, and thereby renders the shirt front lighter and more comfortable for the wearer and better adapted to adjust itself to his figure, and it also obviates the stiffness which exists when the re cnforce piece is unprovided with such hole and is starched, as is often done by accident, in finishing the shirts. It also results in a certain saving of material when the opening is made at the outer corner, as shown in Figure 1.

Fig. 1 shows a shirt-bosom with its ad 0 jacent parts; Fig. 2, a re-enforce piece with G and E, and which junction is effected in my invention by connecting the re-enforce piece a with the armhole-seam E by means of a lateral piece or tongue or tongues, e e, which may be made integral or in one piece with the reeuforce, as shown in the drawings, or separate therefrom and united to it, asat the line (2 at the right-hand side of the bosom.

In the drawings, the opening 6 in Fig. l is bounded by a curved line, 0, which curve in (No modci.)

tersects the material on the bias, and thereby renders the tongue 0 very flexible and adapted to yield in any direction to the strain which may be placed upon it when the shirt is worn.

As the opening I) is the essential novelty of my invention, it is obvious that two tongues, 6, might be used instead of one, as shown at the left-hand side of the bosom, and that the precise shape and proportions of such tongues would be immaterial, provided the opening 6 were produced by their use. Neither is it essential that the boundary of the opening should be a curve, as shown at c, as a straight line might be substituted therefor, although such curve is preferable on account of its imparting a greater flexibility to the tongue when in use.

A shirt-bosom is usually made with two or three thicknesses of material, and the'principal object of a re-enforce is to prevent the breaking of the shirt front at the point where it joins the thinner material in the body of the shirt; and my construction serves as effectually to strengthen the shirt front where it joins the edge of the shirt-bosom as if the reenforce were wholly extended up into the corner lettered C.

The object of connecting the re-enforce with the armhole is to strengthen the front latererally, which is effected in a suflicient degree in my invention without incurring the stiffness and warmth which arise when the reenforce is extended to the corner C.

In the modification of my invention shown in Fig. 2, the openingb is formed at the outer edge of the re-enforce piece, so as to convert the whole edge into two tongues, e, and in Fig. 3 the opening is made adjacent to the shoulder-seam 0, so as to. form the tongue 6 at the lower part of the projection which joins the armhole. In all these cases the effect of the opening I) is substantially the same, namely,

to render the connection of the re-enforce with v union with the edge of the shirt-bosom and secures a degree of strength vertieallygvhich is entirely wanting in the constructions referred to. I therefore disclaim the said Letters Patent, and claim my own construction, as follows:

1. I11 a shirt, the combination, with the bosom, of a re-enforce piece formed with the longitudinal part a and lateral tongue e, and having an opening at or near the junction of the armhole and shoulder-seam, and operating to render the same more flexible, substantially as shown and described.

2. In a shirt, the combination, with the bosom, of the re-enforce piece having a longitudinal part, a, attached to the edge of the bosom, the opening 2;, formed in the same, substantially as described, at the outer edge to render it more flexible, and the tongue e, extended from the part a below the shoulderseam and joined to the armhole, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

J. WVILBUR SMITH.

' Witnesses:

L. LEE, THos. S. CRANE. 

